95 research outputs found
Identifying Urban Canopy Coverage from Satellite Imagery Using Convolutional Neural Networks
The 26th AIAI Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS 2018), Dublin, Ireland, 6-7 December 2018The availability of high resolution satellite imagery offers a compelling opportunity for the utilisation of state-of-the-art deep learning techniques in the applications of remote sensing. This research investigates the application of different Convolution Neural Network (CNN) architectures for pixel-level segmentation of canopy coverage in urban areas. The performance of two established patch-based CNN architectures (LeNet and a pre-trained VGG16) and two encoder-decoder architectures (a simple 4-layer convolutional encoder-decoder and Unet) was compared using two datasets (a large set of images of the Geerman town of Vaihingen and smaller set of the US city of Denver). Results show that the patch-based methods outperform the encoder-decoder methods. It is also shown that pre-training is only effective with the smaller dataset.Science Foundation Irelan
Value-Based Billing in a 3G IP Services Environment
The proliferation of IP-based services has resulted in a paradigm shift away from traditional flat-rat, single service billing to content and usage based billing for composed service sets. The Information Societies Technology (IST) FORM project has prototyped an accounting and billing solution for IP-based telecommunications services. A key element of the solution is the IPDR Network Data Management - Usage specification. This paper presents the FORM development of a federated accounting and billing solution for inter-enterprise IP-based service billing and accounting
Climate Change â Refining the Impacts for Ireland: STRIVE Report (2001-CD-C3-M1) ISBN: 978-1-84095-297-1
International Context: As a mid-latitude country Ireland can expect its future
temperature changes to mirror quite closely those of
the globe as a whole.
Best estimates of global temperature change by the
end of the present century are currently in the region
1.8â4.0°C1. Regional Context: Weighted
Ensemble Downscaling from Global
Climate Models
Global climate models (GCMs) have greatly improved
in reliability and resolution as computing power has
increased and better inputs from earth observation
have become available. Despite this, they remain too
coarse in terms of their grid size to enable climate
scenarios at the scale necessary for impact analysis to
be achieved. This study employs a statistical
downscaling approach to overcome these difficulties
and also to provide new information on model
uncertainty with a view to reducing uncertainty in key
sectors such as water resource management,
agriculture and biodiversity
High Pressure Processing of Dairy Foods
End of Project ReportThe term High Pressure Processing (HPP) is used to describe the technology whereby
products are exposed to very high pressures in the region of 50 - 800 MPa (500 - 8000
Atmospheres). The potential application of HPP in the food industry has gained popularity
in recent years, due to developments in the construction of HPP equipment which makes
the technology more affordable. Applying HPP to food products results in modifications to
interactions between individual components, rates of enzymatic reactions and inactivation
of micro-organisms.
The first commercial HPP products appeared on the market in 1991 in Japan, where HPP
is now being used commercially for products such as jams, sauces, fruit juices, rice cakes
and desserts. The pioneering research into the application of HPP to milk dates back to the
end of the 19th century. Application of HPP to milk has been shown to modify its gel
forming characteristics as well as reducing its microbial load. HPP offers the potential to
induce similar effects to those generated by heat on milk protein.
Recent reports have also indicated that HPP could accelerate the ripening of cheese. Much
of the Irish cheese industry is based on the production of Cheddar cheese, the ripening time
for which can vary from 4 - 12 months or more, depending on grade. A substantial portion
of the cost associated with Cheddar manufacture is therefore attributed to storage under
controlled conditions during ripening. Thus, any technology which may accelerate the
ripening of Cheddar cheese while maintaining a balanced flavour and texture is of major
economic significance.
While food safety is a dominant concern, consumers are increasingly demanding foods that
maintain their natural appearance and flavour, while free of chemical preservatives. HPP
offers the food industry the possibility of achieving these twin goals as this technology can
lead to reduced microbial loads without detrimentally effecting the nutritional or sensory
qualities of the product.
The development of food ingredients with novel functional properties offers the dairy
industry an opportunity to revitalise existing markets and develop new ones. HPP can lead
to modifications in the structure of milk components, in particular protein, which may
provide interesting possibilities for the development of high value nutritional and functional
ingredients.
Hence these projects set out to investigate the potential of HPP in the dairy industry and
to identify products and processes to which it could be applied.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin
Results from Ireland North and Southâs 2022 report card on physical activity for children and adolescents
BackgroundThe Ireland North and South Report Card on Physical Activity (PA) for Children and Adolescents aims to monitor progress in PA participation across a range of internationally established indicators.MethodsData were collated for 11 indicators and graded following the harmonised Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance report card process. Six representative studies (sample size range n = 898 to n = 15,557) were primarily used in the grading, with many indicators supplemented with additional studies and reports. Data collected since the implementation of COVID-19 public health measures in March 2020 were excluded.ResultsGrades were awarded as follows: âOverall physical activityâ, C-; âOrganised Sport and Physical Activityâ, C; âActive Playâ, INC; âSedentary Behavioursâ, C-; âPhysical Fitnessâ, INC; âFamily and Peersâ, D+; âSchoolâ, C-; âPhysical Educationâ, D; âCommunity and Environmentâ, B+ and âGovernmentâ, B. Separate grades were awarded for disability as follows; âOverall physical activityâ, F; âOrganised Sport and Physical Activityâ, D; âSedentary Behavioursâ, C-; âFamily and Peersâ, C; âSchoolâ, C- and âGovernmentâ, B. âActive Playâ, âPhysical Fitnessâ, âPhysical Educationâ and âCommunity and Environmentâ were all graded INC for disability. Since the last report card in 2016, four grades remained the same, three increased (âOverall physical activityâ, âSchoolâ and âPhysical Educationâ) and two (âFamily and Peers,â and âGovernmentâ) were awarded grades for the first time.ConclusionGrades specific to children and adolescents with disability were generally lower for each indicator. While small improvements have been shown across a few indicators, PA levels remain low across many indicators for children and adolescents
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Optimizing human Treg immunotherapy by Treg subset selection and E-selectin ligand expression
While human Tregs hold immense promise for immunotherapy, their biologic variability poses challenges for clinical use. Here, we examined clinically-relevant activities of defined subsets of freshly-isolated and culture-expanded human PBMC-derived Tregs. Unlike highly suppressive but plastic memory Tregs (memTreg), naïve Tregs (nvTreg) exhibited the greatest proliferation, suppressive capacity after stimulation, and Treg lineage fidelity. Yet, unlike memTregs, nvTregs lack Fucosyltransferase VII and display low sLeX expression, with concomitant poor homing capacity. In vitro nvTreg expansion augmented their suppressive function, but did not alter the nvTreg sLeX-l ° w glycome. However, exofucosylation of the nvTreg surface yielded high sLeX expression, promoting endothelial adhesion and enhanced inhibition of xenogeneic aGVHD. These data indicate that the immature Treg glycome is under unique regulation and that adult PBMCs can be an ideal source of autologous-derived therapeutic Tregs, provided that subset selection and glycan engineering are engaged to optimize both their immunomodulation and tropism for inflammatory sites
Results from Ireland North and Southâs 2022 report card on physical activity for children and adolescents
BackgroundThe Ireland North and South Report Card on Physical Activity (PA) for Children and Adolescents aims to monitor progress in PA participation across a range of internationally established indicators.MethodsData were collated for 11 indicators and graded following the harmonised Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance report card process. Six representative studies (sample size range n = 898 to n = 15,557) were primarily used in the grading, with many indicators supplemented with additional studies and reports. Data collected since the implementation of COVID-19 public health measures in March 2020 were excluded.ResultsGrades were awarded as follows: âOverall physical activityâ, C-; âOrganised Sport and Physical Activityâ, C; âActive Playâ, INC; âSedentary Behavioursâ, C-; âPhysical Fitnessâ, INC; âFamily and Peersâ, D+; âSchoolâ, C-; âPhysical Educationâ, D; âCommunity and Environmentâ, B+ and âGovernmentâ, B. Separate grades were awarded for disability as follows; âOverall physical activityâ, F; âOrganised Sport and Physical Activityâ, D; âSedentary Behavioursâ, C-; âFamily and Peersâ, C; âSchoolâ, C- and âGovernmentâ, B. âActive Playâ, âPhysical Fitnessâ, âPhysical Educationâ and âCommunity and Environmentâ were all graded INC for disability. Since the last report card in 2016, four grades remained the same, three increased (âOverall physical activityâ, âSchoolâ and âPhysical Educationâ) and two (âFamily and Peers,â and âGovernmentâ) were awarded grades for the first time.ConclusionGrades specific to children and adolescents with disability were generally lower for each indicator. While small improvements have been shown across a few indicators, PA levels remain low across many indicators for children and adolescents
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