Equivariant Map and Agent Geometry for Autonomous Driving Motion Prediction

In autonomous driving, deep learning enabled motion prediction is a popular topic. A critical gap in traditional motion prediction methodologies lies in ensuring equivariance under Euclidean geometric transformations and maintaining invariant interaction relationships. This research introduces a groundbreaking solution by employing EqMotion, a theoretically geometric equivariant and interaction invariant motion prediction model for particles and humans, plus integrating agent-equivariant high-definition (HD) map features for context aware motion prediction in autonomous driving. The use of EqMotion as backbone marks a significant departure from existing methods by rigorously ensuring motion equivariance and interaction invariance. Equivariance here implies that an output motion must be equally transformed under the same Euclidean transformation as an input motion, while interaction invariance preserves the manner in which agents interact despite transformations. These properties make the network robust to arbitrary Euclidean transformations and contribute to more accurate prediction. In addition, we introduce an equivariant method to process the HD map to enrich the spatial understanding of the network while preserving the overall network equivariance property. By applying these technologies, our model is able to achieve high prediction accuracy while maintain a lightweight design and efficient data utilization

EqDrive: Efficient Equivariant Motion Forecasting with Multi-Modality for Autonomous Driving

Forecasting vehicular motions in autonomous driving requires a deep understanding of agent interactions and the preservation of motion equivariance under Euclidean geometric transformations. Traditional models often lack the sophistication needed to handle the intricate dynamics inherent to autonomous vehicles and the interaction relationships among agents in the scene. As a result, these models have a lower model capacity, which then leads to higher prediction errors and lower training efficiency. In our research, we employ EqMotion, a leading equivariant particle, and human prediction model that also accounts for invariant agent interactions, for the task of multi-agent vehicle motion forecasting. In addition, we use a multi-modal prediction mechanism to account for multiple possible future paths in a probabilistic manner. By leveraging EqMotion, our model achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance with fewer parameters (1.2 million) and a significantly reduced training time (less than 2 hours).Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

A Demand-side Evaluation of Web Assurance Services: An Empirical Study on AICPA/CICA WebTrust Services

WebTrust service uses an approach similar to financial statements attestation to provide assurance services to web hosts. Prior research generally supports CPAs’ qualifications and abilities in offering such services, but rarely explains the limited success of this endeavor. Based on a conceptual model, this study evaluates the demand side of web assurance services. Research questionnaires were used to gather information from consumers and business firms in Taiwan via the Internet. Our results show that consumers have fundamental understanding of web assurance seals and recognize the importance of web assurance services. However, only a portion of consumers are willing to pay additional costs for the assurance provided by web seals. In addition, CPAs have advantages in credibility and objectivity over other web assurance providers, and are more suitable in providing privacy assurance. An expectation gap exits, however, between consumers and web assurance providers. When offering such services, a provider may face the potential risk of lawsuit and should address the issue properly. The above results have implications for the WebTrust service providers in realigning their strategies in the web assurance market

Validation of a Dose Assessment Method to be Used in Loose Contamination Exercises

Emergency responders could be exposed to loose radioactive material during a mission. As part of a research project at Texas A&M University, 18F was sprayed in a small area where an Exercise Participant (in protective gear) conducted simulated search activities. A dose assessment tool developed by the researchers was used to estimate doses to the Radiation Worker (mixer and sprayer) and Exercise Participant. The current project aimed to validate the assessment methodology by comparing actual and estimated doses of the two personnel. In the scenario, the Radiation Worker injected and mixed 200 MBq Fludeoxyglucose 18F (FDG) with 470 ml H2O in a commercial weed sprayer. The solution was distributed evenly over a 3 m x 3 m region in 5 min. After 36 min of evaporation, the Exercise Participant entered the area for a total of 22 min. Actual whole body (WB) doses from optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) were 10 ± 2 uSv for both the Radiation Worker and Exercise Participant. WB digital personal dosimeter readings were 4.3 plus or minus 0.4 uSv and 3.3 plus or minus 1.0 uSv for the Radiation Worker and Exercise Participant, respectively. Actual extremity doses to Radiation Worker’s finger dosimeters were < 100 uSv (minimum detectable limit), and to exercise participant’s leg OSL was < 10 uSv. Preliminary dose assessment method was conservative for the Radiation Worker and conservatively accurate for the Exercise Participant. The predicted Radiation Worker doses were 90 uSv to the whole body (WB) and 744 uSv to the hand, both double greater than 2o above the actual exposures. The Exercise Participant’s estimated doses were 7 uSv to the WB and 15 uSv to the knee area, which were in the same order of magnitude as the actual. Refined dose assessment aimed to predict personnel exposure more exactly and was shown to be accurate. The predicted Radiation Worker doses were 2.8 plus or greater 0.8 uSv to the WB and 21.8 plus or minus 7.5 uSv to the hand. The Exercise Participant’s estimated doses were 5.2 plus or minus 0.5 uSv to the WB and 13.4 plus or minus 1.2 uSv to the knee area. Estimated whole body doses were in the same order of magnitude as the actual doses for both the Radiation Worker and the Exercise Participant. Comparing estimated extremity dose to the actual value was difficult, due to exposures having been below detectable limits, however, there were no obvious inconsistencies

Efficiency Improved by H

The photovoltaic (PV) effects have been investigated and improved using efficient treatments both on single-crystalline (sc) and on multicrystalline (mc) silicon (Si) solar cells. The major effect of forming gas (FG) treatment on solar cell performance is the fill-factor values, which increase 3.75% and 8.28%, respectively, on sc-Si and mc-Si solar cells. As for the optimal 15%-H2 ratio and 40-minute FG treatment, the conversion efficiency (η) values drastically increase to 14.89% and 14.31%, respectively, for sc- and mc-Si solar cells. Moreover, we can measure the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) values increase with H2-FG treatment under visible wavelength (400~900 nm) radiation. Thus based on the work in this research, we confirm that H2 passivation has become crucial both in PV as well as in microelectronics fields. Moreover, the developed mc-Si solar cell by proper H2 FG treatment is quite suitable for commercial applications

A dielectric study of YBa₂Cu₃Ox (x=6.07,6.22,6.28,6.34,6.41) superconducting oxides

Includes bibliographical references (pages [45]-46)The dielectric behavior of Y-Ba-Cu-Ox high Tc superconductors is studied for various oxygen concentrations. It is found that the systems under study have a very large dielectric constant and loss which may due to the ac conductivity of charge carriers. The large dielectric constant may lead to the fundamental explanation of the relation between ferroelectricity and superconductivity. These measurements show that the dielectric constant is larger for higher oxygen concentration. This result may be explained on the basis of the hopping probability change as the oxygen concentration changes.M.S. (Master of Science

Adaptive signal processing and its application to Echo canellations in telecommunications

Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-71)In teleconferencing, the introduction of the acoustic echo canceller by using an adaptive transversal filter is the most effective technique of controlling the acoustic echoes. However, the requirement of a high order filter for modeling the long acoustic echo impulse responses results in difficulties in convergence and hardware implementation. This problem becomes even worse in multiple microphone systems. A Partial Adaptive Process (PAP) is developed and studied in this thesis. This method utilizes the exponential decay characteristics of the echo impulse response; therefore, the significant portion of the echo impulse response is modelled by a smaller size filter. Analyses and simulations have been made to estimate the performance of this finite length filter in the steady-state. Results show that the echo canceller will have smaller residual error for speech signal than white noise. Acoustic theory is used to effectively demonstrate how the minimum mean squared error is affected by the dynamically changing impulse response and the effect of using a finite filter order. Results indicate that a large filter will slow down the convergence rate and increase the system error, thus preventing further system performance in acoustic echo cancellation. The small order filter using the PAP method has been shown to be effective. Other filter structures and algorithms in complement to the PAP are introduced. Their improvement in terms of performance and computational savings are discussed. Finally, a new adaptive notch filter is developed and is applied to control the howling phenomenon found in the speakerphone systems.M.S. (Master of Science

Validation of a Dose Assessment Method to be Used in Loose Contamination Exercises

Emergency responders could be exposed to loose radioactive material during a mission. As part of a research project at Texas A&M University, 18F was sprayed in a small area where an Exercise Participant (in protective gear) conducted simulated search activities. A dose assessment tool developed by the researchers was used to estimate doses to the Radiation Worker (mixer and sprayer) and Exercise Participant. The current project aimed to validate the assessment methodology by comparing actual and estimated doses of the two personnel. In the scenario, the Radiation Worker injected and mixed 200 MBq Fludeoxyglucose 18F (FDG) with 470 ml H2O in a commercial weed sprayer. The solution was distributed evenly over a 3 m x 3 m region in 5 min. After 36 min of evaporation, the Exercise Participant entered the area for a total of 22 min. Actual whole body (WB) doses from optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) were 10 ± 2 uSv for both the Radiation Worker and Exercise Participant. WB digital personal dosimeter readings were 4.3 plus or minus 0.4 uSv and 3.3 plus or minus 1.0 uSv for the Radiation Worker and Exercise Participant, respectively. Actual extremity doses to Radiation Worker’s finger dosimeters were < 100 uSv (minimum detectable limit), and to exercise participant’s leg OSL was < 10 uSv. Preliminary dose assessment method was conservative for the Radiation Worker and conservatively accurate for the Exercise Participant. The predicted Radiation Worker doses were 90 uSv to the whole body (WB) and 744 uSv to the hand, both double greater than 2o above the actual exposures. The Exercise Participant’s estimated doses were 7 uSv to the WB and 15 uSv to the knee area, which were in the same order of magnitude as the actual. Refined dose assessment aimed to predict personnel exposure more exactly and was shown to be accurate. The predicted Radiation Worker doses were 2.8 plus or greater 0.8 uSv to the WB and 21.8 plus or minus 7.5 uSv to the hand. The Exercise Participant’s estimated doses were 5.2 plus or minus 0.5 uSv to the WB and 13.4 plus or minus 1.2 uSv to the knee area. Estimated whole body doses were in the same order of magnitude as the actual doses for both the Radiation Worker and the Exercise Participant. Comparing estimated extremity dose to the actual value was difficult, due to exposures having been below detectable limits, however, there were no obvious inconsistencies

Characterization of a rice embryo Ose730 gene on its promoter activity and antisense gene expression

In order to study the promoter activities of rice embryo gene Ose730, various length of its 5'upstream DNA sequences linking with the GUS reporter gene were introduced into rice genome through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method.Transgenic rice plants were confirmed by PCR and Southern blot assays. Results of histochemical GUS assay for these transgenic rice plants showed that almost all the tissues tested, except endosperm, were positive. Transgenic rice containing shorter 5' upstream promoter sequences, such as those transformed with 907 bp ( YJ3 ) or 274 bp ( YJ1C ) of 5' upstream DNA sequence to the start codon, expressed the same or more GUS in all tested tissues ( including stamen, pistil, embryo, pericarp and leaf ) than those of with longer promoter transformants ( YJ1 and YJ2 ). Among these transgenic plants, YJ3 have the most GUS activities in stamen, pistil and pollinated-anthers. In order to explore the possible function of Ose730, several transgenic rice plants that could produce sense or antisense format of Ose730 mRNA were obtained. Results of Northern assays showed great enhancement of Ose730 mRNA in embryo, endosperm, glume and flag leaf for transgenic plants containing 35S promoter and Ose730 sense construct, whereas the Ose730 mRNAs were significantly reduced in transgenic plants containing antisense constructs. The antisense construct driven by promoter of Ose730 has stronger inhibition than that driven by 35S promoter. Western assays of these transgenic plants with antiserum of Ose730 protein showed similar expression pattern to those of Northern assays.本論文以水稻作為進行基因轉殖之研究材料。將胚特有基因Ose730不同長度之啟動子接上GUS報導基因， 利用農桿菌轉殖法送入水稻基因組內，觀察轉殖株內Ose730啟動子是否具有組織專一性。 另外，利用CaMV35S啟動子及Ose730啟動子接上Ose730之反義基因及順義基因進行水稻基因轉殖，期望可以藉由順義基因及反義基因的研究 ， 進一步了解Ose730基因的功能。轉殖水稻經由聚合酶連鎖反應及南方墨點分析，皆可偵測到轉殖基因的存在，其嵌入位置及數目也不盡相同。 在含有不同長度啟動子接GUS報導基因的轉殖植株中，經由GUS組織化學染色，在胚的表現特別強且很一致。各轉殖植株在雌蕊、雄蕊、穎、葉、根及糊粉層皆有表現，在雌蕊、雄蕊、 種皮及授粉後的花藥部分， 以含有0.9 kb的Ose730啟動子表現最強。另外含有274 bp啟動子及0.9 kb啟動子的轉殖株在葉片及根部表現都較含有3.2 kb啟動子的轉殖株強。這些轉殖株的GUS報導基因都會受ABA、NaCl及受傷誘導。GUS暫時性活性分析顯示，含274 bp的DNA片段即具有啟動子的功能。 由北方墨點分析的結果，可以發現由CaMV35S啟動子所啟動的順義基因在胚、胚乳、穎、劍葉皆有強烈的表現，在胚、穎、劍葉此三個部位表現比未轉殖水稻更明顯；在反義基因方面，含Ose730本身啟動子之轉殖株對Ose730基因mRNA之表現抑制較CaMV35S啟動子佳。 西方墨點分析的結果，在胚的部分可以與北方墨點分析的結果相呼應，而穎及葉的部分，順義基因依然有強烈的表現，但是未轉殖水稻則無法偵測到Ose730蛋白質的表現。而胚乳的部份則是不論是含順義或反義基因的轉殖株，均無法偵測到Ose730之蛋白表現。中文摘要……………………………………………………………………I 英文摘要……………………………………………………………………II 前言………………………………….……………………………………1 前人研究…………………………………………………………………3 一、 植物Late Embryogenesis Abundant protein ( LEA ) 基因…3 二、 植物LEA基因啟動子之研究………………………………………5 三、 反義基因應用在植物上之相關研究………………………………8 四、 植物基因轉殖技術…………………………………………………10 材料方法………………………………………………………….………13 一、 基因轉移的植物材料…………………………………….………13 二、 水稻基因轉殖方法及後續分析…………………………………13 1. 農桿菌轉殖法及植株再生……………… …………………………13 2. 少量質體DNA之萃取…………………………………………………14 3. DNA片段之純化回收…………………………………………………15 4. DNA片段之黏接作用…………………………………………………15 5. E. coli 宿主勝任細胞 (competent cells) 的製備……………15 6. 質體轉形作用………………………………………………………16 7. 基因組DNA之萃取………………………………………………...16 8. 聚合酶連鎖反應……………………………………………………17 9. 南方墨點分析………………………………………………………18 10. Total RNA之萃取…………………………………………………19 11. 北方墨點分析………………………………………………………20 12. Total protein之萃取……………………………………………21 13. 蛋白質濃度測定……………………………………………………21 14. 蛋白質膠體電泳分析………………………………………………21 15. 西方墨點分析………………………………………………………22 16. Exonuclease III單一方向刪減突變反應………………………22 17. 基因鎗轉殖法………………………………………………………22 結果………………………………………………………………………26 一、 植物表現載體之構築……………………………………………26 二、 水稻轉殖…………………………………………………………27 三、 Ose730啟動子的分析……………………………………………28 四、 Ose730順義及反義基因之研究…………………………………31 討論……………………………………………………………………33 一、 水稻轉殖…………………………………………………………33 二、 轉殖水稻之確認分析……………………………………………33 三、 Ose730啟動子接GUS報導基因在轉殖水稻中的表現情形………33 四、 Ose730啟動子接GUS報導基因在水稻細胞中的暫時性活性分析.35 五、 以北方墨點法分析Ose730順義及反義基因在水稻中的表現情形…36 六、 以西方墨點法分析Ose730順義及反義基因在水稻中的表現情形…37 參考文獻………………………………………………………………………38 圖表……………………………………………………………………………48 附錄……………………………………………………………………………7

Defect Inspection Using Modified YoloV4 on a Stitched Image of a Spinning Tool

In Industry 4.0, automation is a critical requirement for mechanical production. This study proposes a computer vision-based method to capture images of rotating tools and detect defects without the need to stop the machine in question. The study uses frontal lighting to capture images of the rotating tools and employs scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) to identify features of the tool images. Random sample consensus (RANSAC) is then used to obtain homography information, allowing us to stitch the images together. The modified YOLOv4 algorithm is then applied to the stitched image to detect any surface defects on the tool. The entire tool image is divided into multiple patch images, and each patch image is detected separately. The results show that the modified YOLOv4 algorithm has a recall rate of 98.7% and a precision rate of 97.3%, and the defect detection process takes approximately 7.6 s to complete for each stitched image