Approach to Automated Visual Inspection of Objects Based on Artificial Intelligence

The article discusses the possibility of object detector usage in field of automated visual inspection for objects with specific parameters, specifically various types of defects occurring on the surface of a car tire. Due to the insufficient amount of input data, as well as the need to speed up the development process, the Transfer Learning principle was applied in a designed system. In this approach, the already pre-trained convolutional neural network AlexNet was used, subsequently modified in its last three layers, and again trained on a smaller sample of our own data. The detector used in the designed camera inspection system with the above architecture allowed us to achieve the accuracy and versatility needed to detect elements (defects) whose shape, dimensions and location change with each occurrence. The design of a test facility with the application of a 12-megapixel monochrome camera over the rotational table is briefly described, whose task is to ensure optimal conditions during the scanning process. The evaluation of the proposed control system with the quantification of the recognition capabilities in the individual defects is described at the end of the study. The implementation and verification of such an approach together with the proposed methodology of the visual inspection process of car tires to obtain better classification results for six different defect classes can be considered as the main novel feature of the presented research. Subsequent testing of the designed system on a selected batch of sample images (containing all six types of possible defect) proved the functionality of the entire system while the highest values of successful defect detection certainty were achieved from 85.15% to 99.34%.

CURRENT PROBLEMS OF THE APPLICATION OF AN INDIVIDUAL APPROACH IN THE PRESCRIPTION OF PERSONAL ORAL HYGIENE MEANS IN ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT

Relevance: The use of fixed orthodontic structures increases the risk of developing dental diseases. An effective way to prevent dental diseases is personalized training and monitoring of individual oral hygiene. Purpose of the work: To increase the effectiveness of the prophylaxy of dental diseases in patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. Materials and Methods: The analysis of 60 medical records in the municipal and private clinics of Saratov was carried out. The age of the patients was 13–18 years old. There also was a survey among 15 orthodontists on the subject of the identifying difficulties of using the personification of an integrated approach. A questionnaire was given to the patients. The age of the respondents was 13–18 years old. Results: According to the analysis of data from medical records in municipal and private clinics, a low prevalence of the use of an individual approach in the prescription of personal oral hygiene products in patients undergoing treatment with the use of fixed orthodontic structures was revealed, which is associated with an insufficient amount of time for admission within the framework of the compulsory medical insurance system, and also with low compliance of patients and their parents, as well as low hygienic education of patients, insufficient government attention to preventive dentistry, and lack of labor rates for dental hygienists. When questioning patients, difficulties in adhering to recommendations for personal oral hygiene was revealed. Conclusions. We have developed an algorithm of actions to improve the effectiveness of individual oral hygiene among adolescents undergoing orthodontic treatment. The proposed measures will increase the level of motivation and compliance of patients.

Study on Acoustics in Buildings

Acoustics in buildings is that part of science in which importance has been given to the sound quality in building, which enables a proper understanding of the different factors influencing the same. Acoustics being one of the important factor which enables in reduction of transmission of noise and enable a better sound quality in the room. But however either very less or insufficient amount of work has been put in considering the scope of the subject. Some other limitations are builders either do not give priority to that aspect due to lack of information or the improper design and poor implementation. Also The Indian Standard Codes in this area are too old and need updation considering the Modern Scenario and Modern Construction Practices. So efforts have been made to consider this situation and find the best practices, recent innovations and methodologies which could help in maintaining proper Acoustics in Buildings, Halls, Auditorium's etc. And what role could a Civil Engineer play in elimination of this problem. Keywords: Acoustics, Buildings, Material Properties

Investigation of Thermophysical Properties of Nanomagnetite-based Polymer Materials

In this work, samples of magnetite nanoparticles are synthesized using various synthetic methods. It is shown that of the existing methods of magnetite synthesis, the most widespread is the method of coprecipitation of Fe2+ and Fe3+ salts. Less common, but of interest due to the slower and more controlled kinetics of particle nucleation, is the Fe2+ oxidation method. However, magnetite is unstable and under external influences its phase transition to maghemite can occur, which leads to a change in magnetic characteristics and a change in biological responses. After analyzing the results of the study of samples by the XRD method, the following conclusions can be drawn: The magnetite phase was identified by the characteristic peaks in the diffraction patterns for all samples, except for the sample with EDTA, which may be a consequence of an insufficient amount of the introduced oxidant, or poor diffusion of the oxidant to iron ions due to the formed chelate complex. It can be concluded that magnetite is a promising material for its use in industry and medicine.

Optimum external shading system for counterbalancing glare probability and daylight illuminance in Sydney's residential buildings

PurposeOptimisation of daylight admission through window is crucial for alleviating glare while maintaining useful daylight levels in order to enhance occupants' health, visual comfort and moderating lighting energy consumption. Amongst various solutions, fixed external shade is an affordable solution for housing spaces that need to be sophisticatedly designed, especially during the period of increasing home spaces as working environments. In the humid subtropical region, daylight control plays an important role in indoor comfort, particularly with areas with a high window to wall ratio (WWR). Due to the insufficient amount of such study on non-office spaces in Australia, shading-related standards are not addressed in Australian building codes.Design/methodology/approachThe chosen methodology for the research is a quantitative data collection and analysis through field measurement and simulation simultaneously. The first step is a multi-objective optimisation of shading elements through a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) on parametric modelling via Rhino3D CAD and simulation engines (DIVA and ClimateStudio). In the second phase, the Pareto front solutions are validated by experimental measurements within a room with a single north-facing window (the most probable for the daytime glare in Sydney) for the seven most common local window configurations.FindingsThrough the simulation of ten genes, 1,560 values and 2.4 × 1,019 of search space, this study found an optimum shade for each local common window layout, resulted in +22% in (UDI) and −16% in views with discomfort glare on average. Moreover, an all-purpose polygonal shade showed an average of 4.6% increase in UDI and a 5.83% decrease in the percentage of views with discomfort glare.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are subject to the room dimensions, window dimensions and layouts, and orientation of windows for selected residential buildings in Sydney.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the development of highly accurate fixed external shading systems with rectangular and tapered-form external shapes. A real-time measurement by luminance-metre sensors and HQ cameras located at six eye levels is conducted to corroborate simulation results of the visual comfort.

Quantifying the Potential Contribution of Urban Forest to PM2.5 Removal in the City of Shanghai, China

Climate change and air pollution pose multiple health threats to humans through complex and interacting pathways, whereas urban vegetation can improve air quality by influencing pollutant deposition and dispersion. This study estimated the amount of PM2.5 removal by the urban forest in the city of Shanghai by using remote sensing data of vegetation and a model approach. We also identified its potential contribution of urban forest presence in relation to human population and particulate matter concentration. Results show that the urban forest in Shanghai reached 46,161 ha in 2017, and could capture 874 t of PM2.5 with an average of 18.94 kg/ha. There are significant spatial heterogeneities in the role of different forest communities and administrative districts in removing PM2.5. Although PM2.5 removal was relatively harmonized with the human population distribution in terms of space, approximately 57.41% of the urban forest presented low coupling between removal capacity and PM2.5 concentration. Therefore, we propose to plant more trees with high removal capacity of PM2.5 in the western areas of Shanghai, and increase vertical planting in bridge pillars and building walls to compensate the insufficient amount of urban forest in the center area.

A Systematic Review of Team Formulations in Multidisciplinary Teams: Staff Views and Opinions

Background: Formulation and working psychologically with teams is considered a fundamental part of the role of a clinical psychologist. Quantitative studies have found staff find team formulations a positive, useful experience. Aims: This review aims to utilize a Thematic Synthesis to combine qualitative studies on staff experiences of participating in team formulations and explore what benefits staff perceive from the process. The review also aims to provide a thorough quality appraisal of the included research. Method: A Thematic Synthesis was completed on qualitative studies which met the required inclusion criteria. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist was used to appraise the included research. Results: The studies included in the review were of a mixed quality, and in some instances there was an insufficient amount of detail to complete an accurate assessment. Overall, seven themes were identified across the studies. Conclusions: The current review highlights the importance of team formulation in general practice for both enhancing staff understanding of service users but also improving professional confidence and validation. The review also highlighted some of the barriers to staff practicing team formulations.

Does Bank Resolution Rule out the Use of Public Funds? The Case of the Podkarpacki Bank Spółdzielczy

On 15 January 2020 Polish resolution authority made a decision to launch the resolution of a regional cooperative bank. The aim of the resolution was to maintain the service of local government units, considered as the critical function of the bank. The tool used was a bridge bank combined with bail-in to subordinated bonds and unguaranteed deposits, including deposits from local government units. The author is of the opinion that the write-off deposits from public entities was a substitute of the insufficient amount of liabilities contractually eligible for bail-in, served as the instrument enhancing credibility of resolution as well as protecting other creditors from excessive losses (i.e. mitigating contagion risk). The presented case of bank resolution, has been assessed as an example of intentionally bending of the stiff BRRD rules to an unusual case to find the practical, socially acceptable solution. By comparing this case with resolution of other small banks in the EU, the author argues that national authorities seek to limit the scope for bail-in and try to use the financial arrangements within the resolution of small local banks as more secure for the banking sector and socially acceptable manner.

Global Structure-Aware Drum Transcription Based on Self-Attention Mechanisms

This paper describes an automatic drum transcription (ADT) method that directly estimates a tatum-level drum score from a music signal in contrast to most conventional ADT methods that estimate the frame-level onset probabilities of drums. To estimate a tatum-level score, we propose a deep transcription model that consists of a frame-level encoder for extracting the latent features from a music signal and a tatum-level decoder for estimating a drum score from the latent features pooled at the tatum level. To capture the global repetitive structure of drum scores, which is difficult to learn with a recurrent neural network (RNN), we introduce a self-attention mechanism with tatum-synchronous positional encoding into the decoder. To mitigate the difficulty of training the self-attention-based model from an insufficient amount of paired data and to improve the musical naturalness of the estimated scores, we propose a regularized training method that uses a global structure-aware masked language (score) model with a self-attention mechanism pretrained from an extensive collection of drum scores. The experimental results showed that the proposed regularized model outperformed the conventional RNN-based model in terms of the tatum-level error rate and the frame-level F-measure, even when only a limited amount of paired data was available so that the non-regularized model underperformed the RNN-based model.

The Connection between the Effectiveness of the N95 Masks, and the Process of Recharging Them

Many might have thought that N95 masks are like a very secure and efficient strainer, where the gaps are so small that the particles can’t pass through. However, N95 masks don’t work like that. N95 masks have 2 defense systems. One which uses gravitational force to trap particles by touching them, and the other which uses a static electric field to attract particles of all sizes. This is done by using polypropylene fiber, which has both a positive and negative charge. There are also many types of polypropylene fiber, with the two most common types being Spunbond and Meltblown. However, the charge on the polypropylene will slowly regrade when being used, with a maximum usage length of one day. This leaves many hospitals with an insufficient amount of N95 masks, but it is possible to reuse N95 masks by decontaminating them to remove any possible risk of COVID-19 on the mask, then recharging the polypropylene so it regains it’s filtering effect again. This will allow the mask to be used more than once, so hospitals won’t run out of masks, and there will be more N95 masks for the public if they are not in high demand anymore.