174 research outputs found
broadinstitute/cell-health: Preprint Analysis Code
No full textComplete analysis code for the preprint submission for "Predicting cell health phenotypes using image-based morphology profiling"
Gregory P. Way+, Maria Kost-Alimova+, Tsukasa Shibue, William F. Harrington, Stanley Gill, Tim Becker, William C. Hahn, Anne E. Carpenter^, Francisca Vazquez^, Shantanu Singh^
+Co-First Authors ^Co-Senior Author
Learning to infer programs from synthetic videos of activities in the home
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 53-57).This project models complex activities that occur in a typical household. Programs - sequences of atomic actions and interactions - are used as a high-level, unambiguous representation of complex activities executable by an agent. However, no dataset of household activity programs currently exists. This project builds such a dataset by crowdsourcing programs of typical household activities, via a game-like interface used for teaching kids how to code. The most common atomic actions are implemented in the Unity3D game engine, and videos are recorded of an agent executing the collected programs in a simulated household environment. The VirtualHome simulator allows the creation of a large activity video dataset with rich groundtruth, enabling training and testing of video understanding models. Using the collected dataset, a sequence-to-sequence neural encoder-decoder model with visual attention is built, and learns to infer programs directly from videos. It achieves 46.2% accuracy for action inference.by Shantanu Jain.M. Eng
Health impact assessment of coal-fired boiler retirement at the Martin Drake and Comanche power plants
Get PDFIncludes bibliographical references.Health impact assessment (HIA) is a suite of tools used to characterize potential health effects of policies, projects, or regulations. The objective of this HIA was to understand the impact of decommissioning units at two large coal-fired power plants on mortality and morbidity in the Southern Front Range region of Colorado. Based on Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) chemical transport models of fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and ozone (O3), we modeled five potential emissions reductions scenarios and estimated the potential health benefits of reduced exposures to PM2.5 and ozone for premature deaths, cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations, and other health outcomes for ZIP codes in the Southern Front Range region, including the cities of Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. Health Benefits Scenarios 1 and 2 estimated the health benefits of shutting down most units at the Comanche plant in Pueblo, CO (one newer unit remained operational) relative to a baseline scenario using emissions from 2011 (Scenario 1) or a counterfactual baseline scenario that accounted for sulfur dioxide emissions controls (scrubbers) installed at the Martin Drake plant in Colorado Springs in 2016 (Scenario 2). Health Benefits Scenario 3 estimated the benefits of shutting down the Martin Drake plant relative to the 2011 baseline. Health Benefits Scenario 4 estimated the health benefits of shutting down the Martin Drake power plant and shutting down all but one boiler at the Comanche power plant relative to a 2011 emissions baseline. Health Benefits Scenario 5 estimated the marginal health benefits of decommissioning these plants (with one remaining coal-fired boiler at Comanche) relative to a counterfactual baseline year that considered emissions controls installed at the Martin Drake facility in 2016. In addition to estimating the number of deaths, hospitalizations, and other health outcomes that would potentially be avoided by reducing emissions at these facilities, we also estimated the monetary impact using outcome valuations typically used in US EPA health benefits analyses and examined the environmental justice implications of reduced emissions and exposures across the Southern Front Range. • For Health Benefits Scenario 1 (Comanche Units 3 and 4 were “zeroed out” and compared to a baseline where all other emissions were at 2011 levels), we estimated that reducing population exposures to PM2.5 would result in 1 (95% CI: 0 - 1) fewer premature death each year. Reductions in PM2.5 and O3 exposures would also result in fewer restricted activity days among adults [5 (95% CI: -3 – 95)] and fewer missed school days for children [27 (95% CI: -19- 582)]. Benefits of retiring the Comanche units were similar when emissions controls at Martin Drake are taken into account (Health Benefits Scenario 2).
• For Health Benefits Scenario 3 (emissions at Martin Drake were “zeroed out”), we estimated that reducing population exposures to PM2.5 and O3 would result in 4 (95% CI: 2 - 5) and < 1 (95% CI: 0 - 1) fewer premature deaths each year, respectively. Reductions in PM2.5 and O3 exposures would also result in fewer restricted activity days among adults [10 (95% CI: 0 – 74)] and fewer missed school days for children [4 (95% CI: 2- 5)]. • For Health Benefits Scenario 4, we estimated that reducing population exposures to PM2.5 and O3 would result in 4 (95% CI: 2 - 6) and < 1 (95% CI: 0 - 1) fewer premature deaths each year, respectively. Among the largest annual health benefits are avoided asthma symptom days among children [16 (95% CI: -1 – 141) due to PM2.5 and 13 (95% CI: -348 - 972) due to O3] and minor restricted activity days among adults [69 (95% CI: 0 - 488) due to PM2.5 and 71 (95% CI: -31 - 750) due to O3]. We also estimated that, for Health Benefits Scenario 1, children in the study area would miss 77 (95% CI: -77 - 1180) fewer days of school each year due to lower O3 exposures. • Annual health benefits were lower for Health Benefits Scenario 5 compared to Scenario 4 due to the smaller change in exposure concentration after accounting for the control technologies installed at Martin Drake in 2016. For Health Benefits Scenario 5, we estimated that reducing population exposures to PM2.5 and O3 would result in 2 (95% CI: 1 - 3) and < 1 (95% CI: 0 - 1) fewer premature deaths each year, respectively. Other annual benefits under Health Benefits Scenario 2 included 2 (95% CI: -17 – 44) and 9 (-242 – 678) avoided asthma symptom days due to PM2.5 and O3 exposures, respectively; 28 (95%CI: -2 – 188) and 48 (95%CI: -16 – 513) minor restricted activity days due to PM2.5 and O3 exposures; and 53 (95% CI: -48 – 833) avoided school absences among children due to O3 exposures. • Monetized health benefits when both plants were “zeroed out” ranged from 2.1 million - 1.7 million (95% CI: $0.8 million – 3.2 million) for Health Benefits Scenario 5. Benefits tended to be smaller when only one plant was considered. In all of the analyses, the monetized impacts were driven by the value of avoided premature mortality. In addition, we found that ZIP codes with lower median incomes tended to receive a greater share of the health benefits of decreasing exposures to PM2.5 and O3 resulting from power plant shutdowns. This finding suggests that reducing emissions at the power plants could potentially alleviate some environmental justice concerns in the area
Understanding the impacts of supersaturation and seed crystal loading on struvite precipitation kinetics and collection efficiency
Get PDFTo valorize nutrient rich streams at wastewater treatment plants, installations of full-scale phosphorus removal with struvite precipitation processes is increasing. Utilities are increasingly understanding the necessity for higher levels of nutrient removal due to the regulatory pressures and the up and coming stringent discharge limits. To subsidize some of the operational costs and reap environmental and economic benefits while installing advanced biological nutrient removal processes, utilities are also migrating to nutrient recovery processes focused especially on struvite crystallization and recovery.
Extractive nutrient recovery processes are usually coupled with enhanced biological phosphorus removal processes to reduce the scaling potential of resulting phosphorus rich streams. The increased availability of phosphorus in sludge handling liquors during anaerobic conditions, along with the presence of magnesium and ammonium ions, can lead to unwanted precipitation of struvite at even slightly basic pH conditions. To get rid of unwanted encrustation due to struvite, crystallization techniques to recover struvite from such streams require extensive capital investments. Utilities are employing these side stream phosphorus recovery processes without a clear understanding of the advantages and drawbacks of different reactor designs and process configurations. Although all full-scale processes can achieve a basic level of phosphorus removal (>80%), the supplementary benefits to utilities in terms of product quality, production rate, phosphorus handling capacity, operational costs, etc. can significantly vary.
In this study, segregation between secondary crystal growth and fines generation during struvite crystallization was explored. The effects of initial supersaturation and seed loading concentrations on phosphorus removal kinetics and struvite solids distribution were studied using batch experiments. The kinetics of struvite precipitation with high seed loadings was also investigated and compared using literature data and modeling techniques.
Our results show that phosphate removal was dependent on initial supersaturation and not the mass of seed crystals in the reaction vessel. Struvite fines represented the majority of struvite solids that were formed in all but 2 experiments. Assuming that is true for full-scale processes as well, capital and operational costs, and the associated risks must be accounted for due to the formation, capture and loss of struvite fines before re-introduction into the biological process. Experimental results also show that the percentage removal of total phosphate associated with struvite fines and the kinetic rate of phosphate removal are both dependent on initial supersaturation and seed loading concentrations. The rate of struvite mineral formation must be able to capture the available surface area for crystal growth to take place. Current modeling techniques need to segregate fines and seed growth kinetics to better reflect the reality of full-scale processes which work with larger size struvite crystals and much larger seed loading concentrations.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-08-01The student, Shantanu Agrawal, accepted the attached license on 2017-06-22 at 11:53.The student, Shantanu Agrawal, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-06-22 at 11:56.This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-06-23 at 09:04.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #11248 on 2017-09-29 at 10:46:00Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-29T17:45:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 2017-06-23Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 103467
Lift date: 2019-09-29T17:48:06Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 103467
Lift date: 2020-03-02T19:56:41Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 103467
Lift date: 2020-03-02T19:59:52Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 103467
Lift date: 2020-03-02T20:02:46Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemU of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 103467 on 2020-03-03T10:15:22Z
Impact of financial and multinational operations on manager perceptions of dividends
No full textWe survey managers of firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange about their views on
dividends. We find the perceptions of factors that influence dividend policy differ between
managers of financial and non-financial firms. Industry classification also affects how managers
view statements about the dividend pattern, dividend setting process, dividend policy and firm
value, residual dividend theory, and explanations for paying dividends. However, we find weak,
if any, multinational operations effect on manager perception of dividends. We conclude that
researchers investigating dividends should partition the data by industry type and perhaps other
firm characteristics to better understand the dividend puzzle
Management Views on Real Options in Capital Budgeting
No full textJournal of Applied Finance, Forthcomin
Automated Lane Keep Assist System: A study on the formation and evolution of the mental model of the user of ALKS
No full textThe mental model is a very rarely studied topic when it comes to human-machine interaction. Nearly all the studies that are done in this field are on measuring the actual performance of the human while performing the collaborative task with the automation system rather than understanding the complete picture of how the human is understanding and interpreting the automation is his actions due to just chance or does he/she have logical the reasoning for his/her actions.This research consists of recognising the factors that affect the mental model, designing the experiment that measures the mental model as well as the factors that affect it. This work focuses on ALKS (Automated lane keep assist system) which is a subset of the SAE level 3 automation system for which the rules are laid down by UNECE(United Nation Economic Commission for Europe).The approach of this research consists of an experimental setup in which the participants are given training and then are allowed to experience the level 3 automation in the driving simulator. The training and the simulation are designed to give a different depth in the functionalities and limitations of the system. The weak training just briefly describes the limitations of the system and how to interpret the user interface based on research done by Strand [35] with the consumer of level 2 automation system, on the other hand, the stronger training explains in detail the functionality and the limitations of the system along with the video explanations of how the automation will react in the different scenarios. Both the training are available in English and Dutch depending language preference of the participant. The participants are divided into 2 groups both of them are given different training but both of them experience similar driving conditions on the driving simulator.Later the performance of the mental model, as well as the performance of the factors affecting the mental model are measured. Each participant receives the training once and is subjected to 3 trials of the driving simulation to understand the learning effect of the mental model and its related factors. The results of the mental model performance show that there is a significant gap of 5.5% between the weak and the strong mental model group just after the training, this trend then continues until the last trial where a significant gap of 6.5% in the mental model score.A positive learning curve is also observed starting from the training to the last trial, the learning curve has a positive trend but the data is statistically insignificant to show the difference in the learning rate of the two different groups. There is a significant gap observed between the automation acceptance level of the two groups, although there is no significant rise in the level of acceptance of automation from just after the training to the last trials their difference in the acceptance level is present after the training and all the trials. For the trust level, the difference between the two groups is statistically insignificant, the difference is too small and the number of participants for the experiment is too less. Analysing the pragmatic significance of the trust data, a positive trend can be seen for the strong group whereas the weak group shows a negative trend, even though at the start of the experiment the weak group had a higher trust level. For situational awareness, the weak model group shows the lower situation awareness throughout the lap as compared to the strong mental model group.Mechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic
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