Liquid Level Detection in Standard Capacity Measures with Machine Vision

Capacity measures are commonly used volume standards for testing measuring systems for liquids other than water. Manual readings from the measuring scale can often be difficult due to the location of the capacity measure or to the nature of the measured liquid. This article focuses on the automation of this procedure by using a single camera machine vision system. A camera positioned perpendicular to the transparent neck captures the image of the liquid meniscus and the measuring scale. The volume reading is determined with the user-defined software in the LabVIEW programming environment, which carries out the image preprocessing, detection of the scale marks and the liquid level, correction of lens distortion and parallax effects and final unit conversions. The realized measuring system for liquid level detection in standard capacity measures is tested and validated by comparing the automated measurement results with those taken by the operators. The results confirm the appropriateness of the presented measuring system for the field of legal metrology.

A DEA-Based Complexity of Needs Approach for Hospital Beds Evacuation during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a powerful nonparametric engineering tool for estimating technical efficiency and production capacity of service units. Assuming an equally proportional change in the output/input ratio, we can estimate how many additional medical resource health service units would be required if the number of hospitalizations was expected to increase during an epidemic outbreak. This assessment proposes a two-step methodology for hospital beds vacancy and reallocation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework determines the production capacity of hospitals through data envelopment analysis and incorporates the complexity of needs in two categories for the reallocation of beds throughout the medical specialties. As a result, we have a set of inefficient healthcare units presenting less complex bed slacks to be reduced, that is, to be allocated for patients presenting with more severe conditions. The first results in this work, in collaboration with state and municipal administrations in Brazil, report 3772 beds feasible to be evacuated by 64% of the analyzed health units, of which more than 82% are moderate complexity evacuations. The proposed assessment and methodology can provide a direction for governments and policymakers to develop strategies based on a robust quantitative production capacity measure.

The L p Minkowski problem for q-capacity

In the present paper, we first introduce the concepts of the L p q-capacity measure and L p mixed q-capacity and then prove some geometric properties of L p q-capacity measure and a L p Minkowski inequality for the q-capacity for any fixed p ⩾ 1 and q > n. As an application of the L p Minkowski inequality mentioned above, we establish a Hadamard variational formula for the q-capacity under p-sum for any fixed p ⩾ 1 and q > n, which extends results of Akman et al. (Adv. Calc. Var. (in press)). With the Hadamard variational formula, variational method and L p Minkowski inequality mentioned above, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution for the L p Minkowski problem for the q-capacity which extends some beautiful results of Jerison (1996, Acta Math.176, 1–47), Colesanti et al. (2015, Adv. Math.285, 1511–588), Akman et al. (Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. (in press)) and Akman et al. (Adv. Calc. Var. (in press)). It is worth mentioning that our proof of Hadamard variational formula is based on L p Minkowski inequality rather than the direct argument which was adopted by Akman (Adv. Calc. Var. (in press)). Moreover, as a consequence of L p Minkowski inequality for q-capacity, we get an interesting isoperimetric inequality for q-capacity.

Online Social Cognition Training in Schizophrenia: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Multi-Site Clinical Trial

Social cognition (SC), the mental operations underlying social functioning, are impaired in schizophrenia. Their direct link to functional outcome and illness status have made them an important therapeutic target. However, no effective treatment for these deficits is currently applied as a standard of care. To address this need, we have developed SocialVille—an online, plasticity-based training program that targets SC deficits in schizophrenia. Here we report the outcomes of a double-blind, controlled, randomized, multi-site clinical trial of SocialVille. Outpatients with schizophrenia were randomized to complete 40 sessions of either SocialVille (N = 55 completers) or active control (computer games; N = 53 completers) from home. The a priori co-primary outcome measures were a social cognitive composite and a functional capacity outcome (UCSD Performance-based Skills Assessment [UPSA-2]). Secondary outcomes included a virtual functional capacity measure (VRFCAT), social functioning, quality of life, and motivation. Linear mixed models revealed a group × time interaction favoring the treatment group for the social cognitive composite (b = 2.81; P < .001) but not for the UPSA-2 measure. Analysis of secondary outcome measures showed significant group × time effects favoring the treatment group on SC and social functioning, on the virtual functional capacity measure and a motivation subscale, although these latter findings were nonsignificant with FDR correction. These results provide support for the efficacy of a remote, plasticity-based social cognitive training program in improving SC and social functioning in schizophrenia. Such treatments may serve as a cost-effective adjunct to existing psychosocial treatments. Trial Registration: NCT02246426.

BANDWAGONING BRUNEI DARUSSALAM TERHADAP REPUBLIK RAKYAT CINA PADA TAHUN 2018 DALAM KONFLIK LAUT CINA SELATAN

The South China Sea dispute involves People’s Republic of China (PRC) against Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Brunei Darussalam. The South China Sea Dispute was caused by claimant state and nine dashed line which made by PRC. Instead of resist, Brunei Darussalam in South China Sea Conflict took considerable different gesture other than the rest belligerent parties like Vietnam, Malaysia, Philipines, and Indonesia. Brunei did not show any resistance to PRC regarding territorial claimants and instead cooperates with Asian giants controversial move. Brunei Darussalam took a stand by bandwagoning against the PRC. Brunei’s behaviour was identified by Balance of Threat theory by Stephen Walt. As a result, there is a very unbalanced capability and power capacity measure between the combined power capacity of Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia with PRC. It made worse by the Brunei’s economic crisis. Keywords: south china sea; brunei darussalam; people republic of china; bandwagoning. Abstrak Konflik Laut Cina Selatan melibatkan Republik Rakyat Cina (RRC) dengan Vietnam, Malaysia, Filipina, Indonesia, dan termasuk Brunei Darussalam. Konflik Laut Cina Selatan disebabkan oleh claimant state dan pembuatan sembilan garis putus-putus (nine dashed line) secara sepihak oleh RRC. Dalam menyikapi agresifitas RRC yang mengklaim wilayahnya di Laut Cina Selatan, Brunei Darussalam mengambil sikap yang berbeda dibanding yang dilakukan oleh Vietnam, Malaysia, Filipina, dan Indonesia. Brunei Darussalam mengambil sikap dengan tidak menentang klaim RRC dan melakukan bandwagoning terhadap RRC. Sikap bandwagoning yang dilakukan Brunei Darussalam disebabkan oleh tiga kondisi negara dan empat faktor ancaman dalam teori Balance of Threat Stephen Walt, dimana ukuran kapabilitas dan kapasitas kekuatan yang sangat tidak berimbang antara Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Malaysia, Filipina, dan Indonesia dengan RRC , bahkan jika kekuatan lima negara tersebut digabungkan. Kondisi tersebut ditambah dengan krisis ekonomi yang dialami Brunei Darussalam sehingga bandwagoning dianggap sebagai pilihan yang rasional. Kata Kunci: laut cina selatan; brunei darussalam; republik rakyat cina; bandwagoning.

Mensa ponderaria из Пантикапея?

This paper considers a passportless fragment of a block made of a local dense medium-porous fine-grained limestone which arrived to the Eastern-Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum-Preserve in 2012. The shape of this block and the shape of the remaining hemispheric funnel terminating in a hole allows us to argue that this is a widely spread device in the Ancient world used as a capacity measure for liquid products being on sale — mensa ponderaria. Considered analogies from other Greek poleis show that sekomata were used to exert state control over weights and measures on par with measure vessels.

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY MEASURE AMONG OLDER ADULTS AND PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA

As the growth of the population aged 65 and older is projected to be one of the most substantial demographic trends in history, geriatricians and other professionals working with older adults will be regularly consulted for opinion regarding an individual’s testamentary capacity (Brenkel et al., 2018). For individuals with severe cognitive and psychiatric impairment, the reduced capacity to make decision is evident. However, testamentary capacity among individuals with mild or moderate cognitive impairment has been mixed: some patients with mild cognitive impairment may be incapable of will making, while other patients with moderate cognitive impairment may have testamentary capacity (Spar & Garb, 1992). While several measures of testamentary capacity have been developed, these instruments are either not available for clinicians or lacks the sophistication of a comprehensive assessment (Marson, Huthwaite, & Herbert, 2004; Papageorgiou et al., 2018). With increasingly complex modern family structures (e.g., multiple marriages and stepchildren from these relationships), together with a projected largest transfer of wealth in human history about to occur in the next 30 years (Havens and Schervish, 2003), more standardized assessment procedures for testamentary capacity will be valuable for clinicians working with geriatric populations. In this study, healthy community-dwelling older adults and patients with Major Neurocognitive Disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease were recruited to participate in a validation study of a proposed testamentary capacity measure. Preliminary findings and implications are discussed.

Measuring the probability of a financial crisis

When financial firms are undercapitalized, they are vulnerable to external shocks. The natural response to such vulnerability is to reduce leverage, and this can endogenously start a financial crisis. Excessive credit growth, the main cause of financial crises, is reflected in the undercapitalization of the financial sector. Market-based measures of systemic risk such as SRISK, which stands for systemic risk, enable monitoring how such weakness emerges and progresses in real time. In this paper, we develop quantitative estimates of the level of systemic risk in the financial sector that precipitates a financial crisis. Common approaches to reduce leverage correspond to specific scaling of systemic risk measures. In an econometric framework that recognizes financial crises represent left tail events for the economy, we estimate the relationship between SRISK and the financial crisis severity for 23 developed countries. We develop a probability of crisis measure and an SRISK capacity measure based on our estimates. Our analysis highlights the important global externality whereby the risk of a crisis in one country is strongly influenced by the undercapitalization of the rest of the world.

Capacity Control of ReLU Neural Networks by Basis-Path Norm

Recently, path norm was proposed as a new capacity measure for neural networks with Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) activation function, which takes the rescaling-invariant property of ReLU into account. It has been shown that the generalization error bound in terms of the path norm explains the empirical generalization behaviors of the ReLU neural networks better than that of other capacity measures. Moreover, optimization algorithms which take path norm as the regularization term to the loss function, like Path-SGD, have been shown to achieve better generalization performance. However, the path norm counts the values of all paths, and hence the capacity measure based on path norm could be improperly influenced by the dependency among different paths. It is also known that each path of a ReLU network can be represented by a small group of linearly independent basis paths with multiplication and division operation, which indicates that the generalization behavior of the network only depends on only a few basis paths. Motivated by this, we propose a new norm Basis-path Norm based on a group of linearly independent paths to measure the capacity of neural networks more accurately. We establish a generalization error bound based on this basis path norm, and show it explains the generalization behaviors of ReLU networks more accurately than previous capacity measures via extensive experiments. In addition, we develop optimization algorithms which minimize the empirical risk regularized by the basis-path norm. Our experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed regularization method achieves clearly better performance on the test set than the previous regularization approaches.