commanimation: Creating and managing animations via speech

A speech controlled animation system is both a useful application program as well as a laboratory in which to investigate context aware applications as well as controlling errors. The user need not have prior knowledge or experience in animation and is yet able to create interesting and meaningful animation naturally and fluently. The system can be used in a number of applications ranging from PowerPoint presentations to simulations to children’s storytelling tools.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Speech-controlled animation system

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-68).In order to make the task of animation creation easy, a different approach should be presented to the user. This thesis describes a new approach to animation creation. In this approach, the representation of animation is based on changes in state and not descriptions of the state. Users issue commands, which change the state of objects, to quickly and easily create new and interesting animations. The implemented system, called COMMANIMATION, also includes speech recognition technology, which allows for a more natural user interface. In addition to exploring animation, COMMANIMATION, a system that runs over three networked computers, provides a platform to study issues in pervasive computing, such as the use of multimodal inputs, error control, and error detection.by Nancy Ellen Kho.M.Eng

Using Recycled Concrete as Aggregate in Concrete Pavements to Reduce Materials Cost

The main objective of this project was to evaluate the effects of using aggregate produced from crushed concrete pavement as a replacement for natural (virgin) coarse aggregate in pavement mixtures. A total of ten different concrete mixtures containing recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) were designed to meet the requirements of Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) specifications. These included three different RCA replacement levels (30%, 50% and 100% by weight of the natural coarse aggregate) and two different cementitious systems (plain system – Type I portland cement only and fly ash system – 80% of Type I portland cement and 20% of ASTM C 618 Class C fly ash). The scope of the project included the evaluation and comparison of several properties of RCA and natural aggregates, evaluation and analysis of the effects of RCA on concrete properties, and modification of aggregate gradations and mixture composition in an attempt to improve the properties of RCA concrete. All ten mixtures were first produced in the laboratory (trial batches) and were subsequently reproduced in the commercial ready-mixed concrete plant. Each mixture produced in the ready-mixed plant was used to prepare several types of specimens for laboratory testing. The tests performed on fresh concrete included determination of slump and entrained air content. The mechanical properties of the hardened concrete were assessed by conducting compressive strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio tests. Concrete durability was assessed using a wide array of measurements, including: rapid chloride permeability (RCP), rapid chloride migration (RCM), electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), surface resistivity, free shrinkage, water absorption test, freeze-thaw resistance and scaling resistance. The test results indicated that the properties of plain (no fly ash) concrete mixtures with 30% RCA as coarse aggregate were very comparable to (in some cases even better than) those of the control concrete (0% RCA). Although mixtures with 50% RCA showed a reduction in durability and mechanical properties of up to 36%, the test results still met INDOT’s specifications requirements. The mechanical properties of plain concretes made with 100% RCA were measurably lower (16%-25%) than those of the control concrete. It should be pointed out, however, that these properties were still above the minimums required by INDOT’s specifications except for one mixture in which the w/c was increased to 0.47 to achieve workability. The use of fly ash improved the strength and durability of RCA concrete, especially at later ages. In particular, the properties of concrete with 50% RCA coarse aggregate were similar to the properties of control concrete. Similarly, the mechanical and durability properties of the mixture with 100% RCA coarse aggregate and 20% fly ash were better than those of a similar mixture prepared without fly ash. Even though, when compared to the fly ash concrete with 100% virgin aggregate the mechanical and durability properties of the 100% RCA concrete were up to 19% and 35% lower, it still met minimum requirements imposed by INDOT’s specifications. Once the testing of the original ten types of concrete mixtures was completed, six additional concrete mixtures were developed and produced in the laboratory using aggregate with a modified gradation (with respect to the gradation of the aggregates used in the original mixtures). These mixtures were used to study whether the virgin and RCA aggregates can be used in different proportions to produce an “optimized blend” which will improve one (or more) of the concrete characteristics. The test results obtained from the six additional mixtures indicated that modifying the aggregate gradation did not have beneficial effects with respect to either compressive or flexural strength values. This failure to improve concrete strength with modified aggregate gradation may have been due, at least in part, to the quality of the source of aggregate that was used to modify the gradation. Considering the limited scope of this study (only one source of RCA and two natural aggregate sources were used), it is recommended that the amount of RCA coarse aggregate be limited to 30% in plain concrete and to 50% in fly ash concrete to ensure the adequate quality of the pavement concrete

Artificial Intelligence to Detect Papilledema from Ocular Fundus Photographs.

BACKGROUND: Nonophthalmologist physicians do not confidently perform direct ophthalmoscopy. The use of artificial intelligence to detect papilledema and other optic-disk abnormalities from fundus photographs has not been well studied. METHODS: We trained, validated, and externally tested a deep-learning system to classify optic disks as being normal or having papilledema or other abnormalities from 15,846 retrospectively collected ocular fundus photographs that had been obtained with pharmacologic pupillary dilation and various digital cameras in persons from multiple ethnic populations. Of these photographs, 14,341 from 19 sites in 11 countries were used for training and validation, and 1505 photographs from 5 other sites were used for external testing. Performance at classifying the optic-disk appearance was evaluated by calculating the area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity, as compared with a reference standard of clinical diagnoses by neuro-ophthalmologists. RESULTS: The training and validation data sets from 6779 patients included 14,341 photographs: 9156 of normal disks, 2148 of disks with papilledema, and 3037 of disks with other abnormalities. The percentage classified as being normal ranged across sites from 9.8 to 100%; the percentage classified as having papilledema ranged across sites from zero to 59.5%. In the validation set, the system discriminated disks with papilledema from normal disks and disks with nonpapilledema abnormalities with an AUC of 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98 to 0.99) and normal from abnormal disks with an AUC of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.99 to 0.99). In the external-testing data set of 1505 photographs, the system had an AUC for the detection of papilledema of 0.96 (95% CI, 0.95 to 0.97), a sensitivity of 96.4% (95% CI, 93.9 to 98.3), and a specificity of 84.7% (95% CI, 82.3 to 87.1). CONCLUSIONS: A deep-learning system using fundus photographs with pharmacologically dilated pupils differentiated among optic disks with papilledema, normal disks, and disks with nonpapilledema abnormalities. (Funded by the Singapore National Medical Research Council and the SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Program.)

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels

Ancestral diversity improves discovery and fine-mapping of genetic loci for anthropometric traits - the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium

Hispanic/Latinos have been underrepresented in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for anthropometric traits despite their notable anthropometric variability, ancestry proportions, and high burden of growth stunting and overweight/obesity. To address this knowledge gap, we analyzed densely-imputed genetic data in a sample of Hispanic/Latino adults to identify and fine-map genetic variants associated with body mass index (BMI), height, and BMI-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio (WHRadjBMI). We conducted a GWAS of 18 studies/consortia as part of the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry (HISLA) Consortium (Stage 1, n=59,771) and generalized our findings in 9 additional studies (HISLA Stage 2, n=10,538). We conducted a trans-ancestral GWAS with summary statistics from HISLA Stage 1 and existing consortia of European and African ancestries. In our HISLA Stage 1+2 analyses, we discovered one BMI locus, as well as two BMI signals and another height signal each within established anthropometric loci. In our trans-ancestral meta-analysis, we discovered three BMI loci, one height locus, and one WHRadjBMI locus. We also identified three secondary signals for BMI, 28 for height, and two for WHRadjBMI in established loci. We show that 336 known BMI, 1,177 known height, and 143 known WHRadjBMI (combined) SNPs demonstrated suggestive transferability (nominal significance and effect estimate directional consistency) in Hispanic/Latino adults. Of these, 36 BMI, 124 height, and 11 WHRadjBMI SNPs were significant after trait-specific Bonferroni correction. Trans-ancestral meta-analysis of the three ancestries showed a small-to-moderate impact of uncorrected population stratification on the resulting effect size estimates. Our findings demonstrate that future studies may also benefit from leveraging diverse ancestries and differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns to discover novel loci and additional signals with less residual population stratification

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity

The present work was largely supported by a grant from the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (R01HL118305). The full list of acknowledgments appears in the Supplementary Notes 3 and 4.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Distribution of Arsenic in the Sediments and Biota of Hilo Bay, Hawaii

Sediment samples collected from the Waiakea Mill Pond, Wailoa River, and Hilo Bay were analyzed for arsenic. Arsenic was detectable in 10of II sediment samples, and ranged in concentration from 2 to 715 ppm. Two species of plant and seven species of animal were collected from the Waiakea Mill Pond and analyzed for arsenic. No arsenic was detected in the plants, whereas four of the seven animal species had arsenic concentrations ranging from a trace to 1.3ppm. Sediments of the Wailoa River estuary have much higher concentrations of' arsenic than those of Hilo Bay, indicating that most arsenic is located near the original source of pollution, a factory that once operated on the shores of the Waiakea Mill Pond. Much of the arsenic is found in anaerobic regions of the sediment where it has been relatively undisturbed by biological activity. The low levels of arsenic in the biota of the estuary suggest that there is little remineralization of the region's arsenic and that it is trapped in anaerobic sediment layers